Concord Monitor Editorial, Conveniently Summarized

It's a Villager editorial, isn't it? (4.00 / 1)

Atrios refers to the inside-the-beltway community as the Village.

Its collective wisdom is not necessarily conservative and certainly not liberal, but is homogeneous in considering actual matters of public debate, beneath its dignity.

The Villagers don't bother to actually research complicated policy matters. They instead have their "go to" guys who tell them where the boundaries of respectable opinion are.

The Concord Monitor: groupthink on the Merrimack.

For actual journalism on the economy and the bailout, check out Ira Glass' This American Life this past weekend. An actual, understandable discussion of what Credit Default Swaps are, and informed explanation of different possible forms of government intervention.

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by: elwood @ Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 05:33:05 AM CDT

Yes (!), the editorial is a prime example (0.00 / 0)

of the instinct to run to the non-partisan Villager Wisdom.

It's the David Broderism gene.

birch, finch, beech

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by: Dean Barker @ Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 05:37:45 AM CDT

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Wow, so late? (0.00 / 0)

I don't think I ever believed "experts" since picking out the propaganda in my second grade social studies textbook.

I asked the teacher why the book said certain things, like factory farming ( I didn't use the term, but it was something about milking machines and lots of cows), was "good". She never answered my question and rarely called on me after that.

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by: Jennifer Daler @ Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 05:36:28 AM CDT

There's a question coming up here again and again (0.00 / 0)

And as much as I love Atrios's villagers nomenclature, there's a bit of a distinction to be made.

We all rely on villages, to some extent -- people that have the expertise that we don't. To assume that your average voter can go into the esoteric realms of international credit and render a reasoned judgment is insane. It's also true with things like Iraq.

We live in a culture that can't accept that. A culture that has "intelligent design" advocates shout above PhD'd biologists. Or deny global warming. A culture where freepers love free markets because they don't have to understand them at all (every decision is based on religion, not analysis).

So how do we judge matters? Well, first -- do the people making the argument give you open access to the facts on which they base their case? Do they give you time to reason it out?

Secondly, and more importantly -- how village is your village? Do people pay a price for being wrong? Are the people with a history of being right highly regarded?

That's the village in the village. In a healthy village, there are consequences for being wrong, there is transparency. The people at the top are those that have been proven right.

In an unhealthy village, those at the top are those who have defended the village most successfully.

It's not really the Village, it's the inbred nepotism of it.

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by: Mike Caulfield @ Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 09:38:16 AM CDT

I think this misses the point (0.00 / 0)

(It makes some important points of its own, though.)

The inside-the-beltway Village is a very special place. It has no medical doctors, no scientists, no military historians, no generals, no theoretical economists.

Instead it has only Pundits. Some of the Pundits hold office, some just write columns and editorials.

This village looks out on the rest of the world and then echoes back to that world what it sees. The village council decides which voices from beyond the walls shall enter the Village - not in their full context, of course.

Somehow the Village has decided that its role is not to Search for Truth. Instead, it sees its role as more like that of a film critic. It does not tell us what issues, dramas, and joyful experiences deserve attention from Hollywood: it just tells us how this latest movie campaign compares to earlier ones. It know all about establishing shots and dramatic tension. But it doesn't have any ambition to learn or share anything about the actual story behind the movie. Whether the movie is Schindler's List or Iron Man, the Villagers have a vocabulary and checklist to describe the lighting and sound and even emotional impact.

But to ask a Villager whether the Holocaust was more real than Tony Stark's armor? Why, that's just naive and rude.

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by: elwood @ Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 09:52:32 AM CDT

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